Well, here we are on the last day of October, the official end of my fingerless mitt challenge, and I seem to have fallen short of my goal of a pair a week (which would have resulted in a total of five pairs of mitts) by exactly half.
If you came up with 2.5 there, you would be correct.
I have to say that I am only mildly disappointed in myself, however, because...well...hey! That's still 2.5 more than I did have!
Parden me while I take a sip of my half-full cup o' tea. Ahhh, yes. That's better.
So I finished "improv mitt" #1 just the other day and I am really quite happy with it! I had intended to take pictures of each step along the way, but I'm sorry to say that each step progressed so quickly that I didn't get the chance. For instance, I took both of the following pictures on the same day:
Taken during Open Knit on Tuesday. Note the waste yarn holding the stitches both at the thumb and around the fingers.
Taken while sitting in the carpool lane Tuesday afternoon. Note the distinct lack of waste yarn around the fingers.
As a general rule with this mitt, it seemed that the taking of the pictures took longer than the work itself and the work was already slowed down by the trying on and the writing of notes. And I found myself picking it up and working on it a little at a time, here and there, and you can see by the location of that second shot there.
A few interesting notes on my notes for you knitterly-types (you non-knitterly-types may wish to skip ahead)...
First off, I wanted to use the long-tail cast on for added stretch-factor, but when you join it to work in the round you've got yourself a row of knit stitches. Well, if I had to start off with a row of stitches, I didn't want knit stitches! Not going into a seed stitch pattern, at the base of a cuff. That's just plain silly! I wanted a row of purl stitches. So what's a girl to do?
Why, do the long-tail backwards, of course! It took a fair amount of concentration, but when I reversed which strand I was grabbing and which strand I was wrapping it all worked out exactly as I planned.
Mwah-ha-haa!
Also, I'm afraid I got a little ahead of myself and neglected to watch the video I recommended one more time, just before knitting the thumb gusset. I really wish I had. I forgot to knit the second increase through the back of the loop and found myself with some holes I didn't want. (Siiiiip). That's okay, though...we'll call it a design element!
I will be taking this week to finish up the pair (theoretically, "improv mitt" #2 should go much faster since all I will have to do is follow my notes) before starting my November project theme: Christmas ornaments! I already have a plan to start myself off, which I will fill you in on when the time is right, but (as always) I welcome all suggestions!
